WASHINGTON, September 25 -- Mohsin Al Fadhli, the leader of the Khorasan group of militants who had close ties to terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden, was killed by Tomahawk cruise missiles unleashed on his bases near Aleppo in northern Syria on Tuesday night.

Remains of house near Aleppo after attacks that killed Aj Fadhli

Moshin Al Fadhli had a £4.25million bounty on his head

The top terrorist – who had a £4.25million bounty on his head – was said by US sources to be finalising attacks on Western targets.

He is also thought to have been the brains behind toothpaste bombs and clothes impregnated with explosives designed to blow up airliners in mid-flight.

Khorasan is understood to have been testing sophisticated bombs at its Syrian HQ so they could evade airport detectors.

Yesterday a US official said it was believed Al Fadhli was dead.

The importance of his death can be seen from comments made earlier this month by James Clapper, the US Director of National Intelligence, who said: “In terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State.”Khorasan was in Syria trying to recruit Western jihadists to send them back to their home countries on suicide missions.

The Pentagon said: “Khorasan has established a safe haven in Syria to develop external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices and recruit Westerners to conduct operations.” Al Fadhli was killed when the US and five Arab states carried out raids on IS targets in Syria. More than 20 of the 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by US ships were aimed at eight Khorasan targets including training camps.

Al Fadhli, 33, was born in Kuwait and by the age of 20 was sufficiently high-ranking in Al Qaeda to have known about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

US Army Lieutenant General William Mayville Jr, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “We’ve been watching this group closely for some time, and we believe the Khorasan group was nearing the execution phase of an attack either in Europe, or the homeland.”

A ban on uncharged mobile phones and laptops this summer on air passengers was introduced due to the threat posed by Khorasan and Western jihadists.

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One of the top authors of The Peet Journal is Pete McGea. As a native born Scotsman, Pete has spent more than 20 years working in all forms of the media as a journalist, author, educator, and public relations specialist. Along the way, he has written extensively on state and national politics, foreign affairs, finance, defence, civil rights, constitutional law, health, the environment, and energy. Through his experience, especially the Far East, he is responsible for many editorial assays, political as well as economical.